Curator Jacqueline Thalmann’s team were on the scene in minutes of being alerted by Christ Church Picture Gallery’s alarm system – but it was too late.
A brazen burglary gang had already managed to pull off Oxford’s biggest heist in decades.
It was around 11pm on March 14, 2020. Using ladders stolen from the meadows they climbed onto the roof of the gallery, near the college’s Canterbury Gate in Merton Street, and smashed their way in through a skylight.
They removed three paintings from their frames before returning the way they came.
The heist was carefully planned. The paintings stolen – a landscape by Salvator Rosa, Antony Van Dyck’s A Soldier on Horseback and A Boy Drinking by Annibale Carracci – were on two opposite sides of the room.
Two years on, empty frames mark where the - still missing - Old Master paintings once hung.
“We discovered it more or less as it happened,” Ms Thalmann told the Oxford Mail.
“The alarm system worked as it was supposed to and within minutes we were here and found it.”
The gallery staff were too late. For Ms Thalmann, there was disbelief.
When she saw the missing paintings she wondered for a split second whether there were workmen who hadn’t cleaned up behind themselves.
“There is that split second you think it’s not something that would happen. Then it dawns on you that this is not normal. You see the frames lying on the floor empty,” she said.
“I don’t think it has sunk in. It’s still very unbelievable.
“We want to leave the empty frames as an idea we think they will come back. They have to come back, they belong to this collection; they’ve been shared with the public for over 250 years.”
The curator added: “Everyone involved was shocked, sad, angry – and still angry – that someone had the audacity to violate this. Yes, the paintings belong to Christ Church but Christ Church made them accessible to the public for 250 years. We shared them. We look after them, we care for them, we curate.
“That, I think, is where the anger comes from – that somebody now, very selfishly, has them whatever they [have done] with them – they might be under someone’s sofa. Who knows?
“That’s what hurts. Amidst all the drama the world is in it’s still sad, these are the things we fight for.”
Still at large
The culprits remain at large. Thames Valley Police said earlier this month that their investigation remained ongoing and there had been no ‘significant developments’.
Last year, Det Insp James Mather of Oxford CID said the thieves were believed to have escaped through Christ Church Meadows, via Jubilee Bridge, to Iffley Road. However, officers were also considering whether the burglars had left via the river.
In a witness appeal, he said: “As this happened just as the first lockdown had been announced, at the time you may have put it down to students packing up to return home. However, I would ask that if you saw anything, no matter how insignificant you believe it to be, please report it to us.”
Mr Mather urged the gang to hand in the paintings: “People within the art world and beyond are aware that these paintings have been stolen and so they will be extremely difficult to sell through any legal channels."
The case was featured on Crimewatch last year.
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